New York Times Releases Holographic Experience Starring Ashley Graham

Celebrate New York Fashion Week with a volumetric AR runway show featuring model and activist, Ashley Graham.

From going on a daring spacewalk to hanging out with your favorite cartoons, VR is beloved for its ability to make the unreal feel real. However, in a just released AR experience in honor of New York Fashion Week, The New York Times is doing just the opposite by showcasing supermodel Ashley Graham as she walks the “runway” in an innovative 360-degree holographic video that is raw, unfiltered, and completely unretouched.

Shot using over 100 cameras positioned around Graham on a defacto “green-screen in the round,” the experience allows users to literally project the supermodel into their own physical environments. Though the idea of a hologram may seem like science fiction, the digital version of the model strutting and posing down the runway is the real deal–“a model in motion without the filters, the Photoshopping and the angles the fashion industry is used to.”

Though many would balk at the thought of being captured from every angle for the world to see in three dimensions, Graham, a body positivity activist, jumped at the chance to participate in the unprecedented volumetric shooting experience and show women that they’re beautiful just the way they are.

“You see my lower belly fat, you might be seeing some cellulite, you see the curves of my arms and my butt. You’re seeing all of it,” she said to the NYT. “I’m showing the real me. And I want other women to know that you can show the real you and the real you is perfect, the real you is beautiful.”

The AR experience is the latest jump into immersive technology and storytelling for the media giant, following the release of an AR mobile app feature during the 2018 Winter Olympics. The New York publication also brought AR functionality to its official NYTimes app, letting users check out an augmented rendition of an official NYT honor box (an older device used to sell papers).

You can Watch Ashley’s hologram hit the runway now on The New York Times app available on iOS & Android.